Windows Vista restricts GNU GCC apps to 32 MB. It would appear that Microsoft is again using restrictions to frustrate developers who do not support only the Microsoft platform. Executable images created for the DOS/Wintel environment, using the GNU GCC compilers and language standards (but not linking to the Win32 API), are subject to failure (or performance degradation) when executed in Microsoft Windows Vista, because Vista arbitrarily restricts the memory space for the GCC executable to 32 MB (33,554,432 bytes). Attempts to allocate more memory than this using the malloc(...) function (or related functions, such as calloc(...)) will fail. This limitation applies whether the application is executed with the *Run* command, within a Command Prompt box (DOS box), or with the Start command. This limitation does not appear in Windows XP, Windows 98SE, or standalone DOS; the exact same executable, running under Windows XP SP2 or Win98SE, is capable of allocating several hundred megabytes of physical memory (if present on the machine). The limitation appears to apply to any compiler and linker not employing Microsoft's proprietary Win32 API.
sources: http://www.lamlaw.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=187 http://www.trnicely.net/misc/vista.html Response: http://blogbeebe.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-am-not-lawyer.html -- "As we open our newspapers or watch our television screens, we seem to be continually assaulted by the fruits of Mankind's stupidity." -Roger Penrose
